“Okay, now, it’s time to go.”

After sending Seraphin and his father-in-law to Guthenberg, Lekas dresses up differently. He puts back his bear fur and takes out the swords he stole from the guards when he escaped. The swords sadly, are too damaged and bent all over. It is to the point you would wonder if they could even be repaired. Lekas looks at the swords again, then sighs and throws them away.

‘I will have to make do without a sword for now.’

Lekas then takes a deep breath and teleports. His destination is big cave near Sigrin. Sigrin is the capital of the Kingdom of Vevino, a small but powerful kingdom that never lost in battles. The reason for that was because of their environment. Vevino has the particularity that mana is so dense you could vomit. The people of that kingdom had to endure and adapt to that harsh environment through centuries and ultimately became tough enough to live in it. The only disadvantage for them was that their body evolved with it. They turns smaller than other people, gaining the unique name that characterizes them now: dwarfs. Most of them cannot live outside Vevino because the atmosphere is too different, making them sick.

But the atmosphere of Vevino is not what brings Lekas there, no. What brings him here is actually the reason for such atmosphere: the dragon Leviathan.

***

There are six dragons in Veradom: the insane dragon Culxis, ruler of the drakes, who sleeps near the forest of Lubenia in the north; the darkeater Cecos, who lived in the abyss of the dead sea, near the kingdom of V’ragna; the ruler of fire and thunder, Dios, who is said to be the son of Cald’h himself; the realms’ by-passer: Elsium, who rarely showed himself to the world; the ruler of death, Numerol, one of the high commanders of the demons; and finally, the one who ate infinity, Leviathan.

‘Among the three dragons I can find for help, Leviathan is the one I really don’t want to meet but Dios won’t even hear me since I don’t have a A-grade or S-grade blessing and Elsium is way too selfish to help anybody.’

Lekas enters the cave slowly. The size of the entrance is indeed one that would allow a dragon or two to enter easily. The atmosphere at the entrance is at least ten times heavier than anywhere else in Vevino. Inside, the cave is huge, too huge compared even to the entrance. It is as if the cave is not part of the world.

“Oh, what courage you have.”

As he has just stepped inside the cave, Lekas hears a voice in his head.

“You would come to my place after slaughtering Culxis and Numerol. What courage you have indeed. Lekas Valahal.”

A violent wind suddenly blows from inside the cave. Lekas deploys a magic barrier but it is broken in an instant and Lekas’s body gets slashed by the wind. Every part of his body gets cut and slashed as he barely manages to cover his face.

“You…You remember?”

Lekas doesn’t mind the wound on his body. Rather, he is too surprised by what the dragon just said to mind such details.He remembered that he had slain dragons. How?

‘Wasn’t the time rewind? Or did those fuckers trick me?’

“The gods didn’t trick you. We dragons are not born from the gods’ power but from the world itself. So even if you killed us or rewind time. The world will remember everything and so will we.”

“Incredible.” Lekas couldn’t believe it. The dragons were born from nature itself? That was too much of a news. But it was true then it is a bery bad news. “If so, then why-“

Another wind comes, stronger this time. Lekas doesn’t try to protect himself from this one and is about to use magic to counterattack when the wind changes direction, pulling him inside instead.

Lekas gets dragged by the wind like he is only dust, hitting his body here and there in the process. A few seconds later, he ends up in the deepest part of the cave. In front of him, there is now a huge twenty meters long dragon. It had a belgian color and two horns on each side of his head. His wings are covering his belly while his tail is lying flat on the ground. When Lekas stands up, resisting the huge pressure due to Leviathan’s energy, he opens his eyes. His red eyes stare directly at Lekas, freezing him in place.

Lekas cannot bear the power of a dragon right now. He is too weak for that and doesn’t even have CALD’H blessing. Leviathan can kill him any time he wants.

‘If he hasn’t killed me yet…’

“I haven’t killed you because I don’t bear any special grudge towards you. I am only irritated because you have stained our honor.”

Leviathan’s mouth slightly moves as his voice rings in Lekas’s head. Now that he is up close, Lekas feels as if thousands people are screaming directly into his ears every time the dragon speaks.

‘The difference in magic power between us is really great.’ Leviathan’s eye twitches lightly as he heards what the puny human in front of him just thought. For a human who can’t even hide his thoughts from him to be trying to size him up is a utter heresy.

“But I-”

“Whether you were under the influence of Cald’h or not doesn’t change anything. You still killed two dragons. Though I don’t really care about Numerol since he decided to betray us anyway.”

“Then why are you so irritated?”

“Culxis and I never got to finish our fight. I always wanted to pin that bastard head down and make him understand that he is beneath me but you had to go and slay him.”

“Ah? I-I am sorry, then?”

“What do I care?”

‘I didn’t know dragons were so emotional.’

“Anyway, what have come here for?”

“I want to-”

“No.”

“I didn’t even finish.”

“Me, fusing my powers with yours? Are you stupid? Who would accept to see a cockroach as his equal?”

“I am not a cockroach.”

“You are even less than that. And even if I did, what do you want to do with it? you are no hero anymore.”

“There is something I must take care of.”

“What. The alter ego?”

“The what?”

“The thing you extracted from that girl.”

“Wait, how do you-”

“All of us felt her presence when you pulled her out. She is the soul of a god after all. Though, it is only a fragment.”

“Wait, really?”

“The origin of the dark gods to be more precise: MISTAKHAL. Only dragons and gods know that name normally. It is obvious you wouldn’t know about it. She sometimes tries to obtain keys to her seal by injecting a small part of her soul into different worlds. But she generally fails, gods are strict and merciless in tracking her down after all.”

“No, no, no wait. You are talking too much. There are too many informations I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t speak for you to understand. If you want my power to take care of her, I am not sure it will be enough. The alter ego you have released is growing stronger by the day and I am not sure anybody will be able to defeat her in a century at the rate she is going. Pulling her out of her body was a bad move from you. The high servants might not even be able to do anything in ten years.”

“Then-”

“Even so, giving you my power is way too much trouble.”

“Why?”

“Because I would become the laughing stock of everyone else. And Numerol wants your head so I don’t want to be dragged into your problems.”

“Please, you have to help me.”

Lekas kneels in front of the dragon. He places both knees on the ground and his forehead goes to the ground with a faster pace than he expected because of the increased gravity in the cave. As a result, his blood starts to pour in the cave while he begs Leviathan for help. “Please.”

Lekas knows that if what Leviathan said was true, then he has the responsibility to stop it. Or everything he did would be for nothing. Not only that, he is the cause of this problem as well. It is only right that he takes care of it

“I am telling you. No matter how much you beg, I can’t give you my power unless you kill me.”

Lekas’s ears twitch at those words. He instantly caught on to the hidden meaning. Leviathan is prideful. He certainly is like Culxis who refused to beg for his life as Lekas’s sword was on his throat. He wouldn’t want the other dragons to mock him because he helped a human so he would be killed and have his power stolen.

“You are not like Dios then.”

“That fool never dared to talk to us after he started helping humans.”